The present invention is directed to a pressure sensor for acquisition of pressure over a broad range of measurement.
Many technical applications such as, for example, vacuum technology, require the mensurational acquisition of pressure with high precision over a range of measurement that is several orders of magnitude broad. Due to their technical design, by contrast, conventional pressure sensors have an extremely limited range of pressure measurement. Up to now, a plurality of individual pressure sensors having ranges of measurement adjoining one another were therefore simultaneously utilized. The following disadvantages, however, result therefrom. Since a plurality of sensors are required, the arrangement is correspondingly more complicated. The output signals of the sensors are generally not compatible with one another and must therefore be evaluated in an additional, external electronic circuit, which recognizes which of the sensors is working in the permitted range of measurement at the moment. The range of measurement that can be achieved is greatly restricted due to the slight over-pressure capacity of traditional pressure sensors.